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When Congress Spends, Worse Is Better

Earmarks enable bad bills.

The worse the omnibus spending bill now before Congress gets, the more likely that Congress will pass it -- and that Barack Obama will sign it into law.

The reasons confuse most Americans. But the iron logic is well understood by every Beltway politician. We were given a glimpse of it Sunday on CNN, when Peter R. Orszag, President Obama's budget director, called the $410 billion omnibus "uglier than we would like" -- and in...